The villainess shall be mine

Chapter 3 Gift

One of the most beautiful places that were connected to the Royal castle of Kepalta was the Royal garden.

It was a structure made of glass and a pleasant smell filled its interior because of the existence of exotic plants that looked majestic and beautiful inside it.

In the middle of this paradisiac garden, there was a luxurious white table along with beautiful chairs, and on top of the table, there was a tea set presented along with appetizing-looking sweets.

Julius Von Kepalta, the Lord, and Marie Vyh Kepalta his wife sat on the chairs, spending some time alone as husband and wife because once in a while, Julis would take a full day off to spend time with his wife even if he was a busy man.

"I am a bit worried about our son," Marie spoke, with an apparent concern on her beautiful face. "He is certainly a brilliant child but he doesn't seem to be aware of the world around him most of the time. He is so engrossed in his learning and rarely communicates with other people of his age. What do you think we should do? At this rate, he might become disassociated from the rest of the world."

"I understand your feelings. He is certainly different from the other children but that's what makes him unique. You must take into account that he is just a 6-year-old child so he is curious about many things but we don't need to force him to change, we just have to guide him." Julius answered with a graceful voice and held his wife's white and delicate hand gently. "He is intelligent so he will understand things little by little as he grows up and discovers the world by himself. Moreover, acquiring knowledge is never a waste of time so let's watch over his progress and guide him."

Marie looked at Julius in the eyes and her concerns began to dissipate little by little. "You are right but I think we need to talk to him more and offer him the opportunity to talk to new people," she said, then she continued with a bright smile on her face. "I know, why don't we organize a picnic and invite the other Lords and their children? These children are kind and talented so Adam will get along with them."

Julius also became enthusiastic after listening to Marie's suggestion. "That's a great idea! Now that Adam is older, it's time to introduce him officially to the world," he said excitedly.

Even though the planet under the jurisdiction of the Kepalta family was located far from the empire and Julius was only a level 5 Lord, he had a good relationship with the other nobles.

This kind of relationship was one of the things that Julius managed to build during the first few years when he became the Lord of Kepalta and helped him to bring prosperity to his territory.

Julius was intelligent and he took advantage of the natural resources of his planet to build connections based on profits with the rest of the universe but then he used these profits for the sake of the population and the advancement of technology.

As time went by, his ingenious ideas and hard work earned him the respect of the population and the other Lords, earning him a promotion in rank because the Empire seemed to have recognized his ability and at some point, these connections that were only based on profit became a form of friendship.

Unfortunately, his wife Marie had difficulty getting pregnant and he was getting old, so he was always worried about his legacy. That was why the birth of Adam his son was such a blessing for him and the population under his jurisdiction.

Moreover, his son turned out to be a genius and he was so proud of him.

Still, Adam rarely spoke to him and his wife and appeared to be more like an adult than a sweet child that just turned 6 years old. He was worried about his son too but he didn't want to cause unnecessary concern for his good-natured and sensitive wife.

"Well, let's discuss that later this evening," Julius added.

He never imagined that his son reserved more surprise.

*****

:::[Adam's POV]:::

On a peaceful evening, my family was gatheredaround a dining table.

My mother sat across from me while my father sat at one end of the table on my right.

We were chatting happily and the atmosphere inside the dining room was quite relaxed as we talked about going for a picnic with other Lords and their children which was quite interesting if I wanted to gather more information.

But on that day, I had something more important to tell them and what I was about to say would probably stun both of my parents.

I took a spoonful from my delicious-looking soup and spoke a few words. "Father, I have awakened my gift," I said casually.

As soon as my father heard these words, he had different kinds of reactions showing on his face. Mouth agape and with a comical face, his eyes were looking at me as if he was looking at a newly discovered species.

My mother seemed calm as ever but she dropped her spoon for a second then gracefully picked it up as if nothing happened.

,m My father shuttered a little and asked for confirmation as if he couldn't believe his ears. "R-really?"

Their surprise was justified since I just turned 6 years old and suddenly I said that awakened my gift as if it was a normal occurrence because normally, people only awakened their power at the age of 12 and the few talented ones at 9 or 10.

My father was the most surprised since he was a high-level gift holder himself.

My mother, on the other hand, stayed silent and looked at me with puzzled eyes.

After all, the fact that I awakened my power made me the youngest person in this universe to possess a gift.

From what I could read in the universal encyclopedia of this world: A 'Gift' was a metaphysical power that let the holder alter certain aspects of the natural laws in their surrounding.

It was the only good thing about the unknown phenomenon that occurred in ancient times and with it, humans managed to avoid the worst outcome. This was because the holder of the gift could control the 'primordial particles' and use elemental-related abilities that were not part of the natural law of this world. Consequently, it had the potential to distort reality and could even bring some significant changes to the world.

According to the book, gifts were given to humans by God to save them from their demise. That was why it was called the gift and the holder needed to refine it to completely make this supernatural power their possession and a part of them.

That way, they would be able to freely control their gift and also control reality at a significant level, evolving the "Gift" into an "Authority".

The level of mastery of a gift was ranked from 1 to 10. This rank also reflected the power of the holder and in a way one of the criteria that determined a person's value in this world where monsters could appear at any time.

Level 1 referred to a person that had just awakened their gift and from levels 2 to 3, the individual could use the power bestowed to them more efficiently.

After that, the holder must achieve a certain level of mastery and the gift should have become an extension of their own body, increasing its destructive power or some other aptitudes significantly to reach a point of convergence between the gift, the body, the soul and the mind. It was only after this process that the person could move up in rank and reach levels 4 up to 7.

Lastly, Level 8 to 10 gift holders were the most powerful beings in this world and their power affected the natural order of the world so they could cause great destruction. Most of them were influential figures in the Empire.

Beyond level 10 were those who possessed the "Authority". These people were considered divinities and a world apart from a mere high-ranked gift holder.

Regardless, a person's potential to become powerful depended on their luck, talent, and the number of primordial particles that they could control in their surroundings and inside their body.

But not all people could manifest the power of gifts and these people are called giftless. My mother, for example, was a giftless person.

After his shock subdued, my father began to get excited and he spoke loudly, different from his usual composed self. Even the maids and attendants inside the castle were surprised by this change of tone. "Son, that's great news! I knew that you are exceptional but this is beyond my expectations," he cried. "So what kind of gift did you manifest? You already learned about that right."

Not pleased by my father's behavior, my mother scolded him. "Dear, tone down a little. You are talking too loudly," she said.

My father quickly calmed down a bit after seeing my mother's smile.

But as my father insinuated, there were two types of gifts: 'Elemental gifts' and 'Particular gifts.'

There was also a book that explained the types of gifts along with other information related to their mastvery inside the library and from what I could determine after reading it, my gift was a particular type and I didn't even know the extent of the things that I could do with it yet at that point but at least, I didn't end up with a weird condition where I had to find a legendary sword to obtain a gift.

I wasn't enthusiastic about it as my father was but I knew that I had to master this power and take full advantage of it if I wanted to be successful in this second life.

'Particular gifts' were rare if compared to elemental gifts and most of the time, they were useless because of their randomness but those who possessed extraordinary particular gifts were said to be able to even control time. However, since they were rare and most of the time unique, those who possessed a particular gift often had a hard time mastering it and could not ask for experienced masters for help so they couldn't bring out their full potential. Also, most of them didn't have enough knowledge or imagination or lacked talent and imagination.

Despite all of that, most of those who were at the top of this universe was the holder of a powerful and particular gift.

Elemental gifts, on the other hand, were more common and were easy to master since people could find masters that could teach them how to train more efficiently and increase their mastery of the gift.

This type of gift gave the user the ability to manipulate the primordial elements or elements derived from them which were fire, water, wind, lightning, darkness, and light.

The power of elemental gifts was by no means inferior to the most extraordinary particular gifts but what a person could achieve with a gift depended heavily on themselves.

As for my power, I still couldn't understand its true nature. It was certainly a particular gift but all I could do was neutralize some aspects of the natural phenomenon that appeared within a radius of three meters around me. 'Well, phenomena related to the power of gifts, monsters, and artifacts are considered natural phenomena in this world.' I thought, realizing that my power would be very useful if I could take advantage of it.

I theorized that it was similar to an impenetrable force field and I needed a certain level of concentration to activate it. After all, it was a power that could rewrite the law of nature, giving me the ability to nullify all kinetic energy within this force field.

'For example, If it is a burning flame then it will return to its neutral state and become simple neutral atoms. As for a flying rock, then it will lose its momentum and return to a simple unmoving rock.' I theorized but I still needed to test my power under various conditions.

In other words, if it was active or followed this world's law of nature then I could neutralize it and bring it to a neutral or inactive state of existence.

Nevertheless, I remarked that this power didn't return things to their initial state, for example, it didn't turn a rock into atoms but rather canceled its movement. 'Or is it because I used a mana stone?' I thought.

Still, this would mean that I was more or less immune to all kinds of attacks, or so it seemed, but there were some issues and loopholes.

First, it didn't activate automatically or permanently. Second, if the attack was too fast then it would hit me because the area covered by this force field was relatively small and my power needed some time to be fully activated. Also, the speed of neutralization needed to be taken into account so even if I activated my power, the attack would hit me before I noticed it.

This means that I needed to find a way to expand the limit of the area covered by my force field and also look for a method to hasten the process of neutralization.

Furthermore, I felt like my ability was unstable and incomplete. It was certainly a unique power and without a certain level of intelligence, a person wouldn't be able to figure out its actual use but it was too random and felt a little exaggerated.

'Most protagonists all get some kind of cheat when they get reincarnated but really, what kind of cheat is this supposed to be? Invincibility? Well, I guess it's better than a simple elemental gift. This might even be the key for me to succeed in this life. Being able to use all of the elemental gifts all at once might have been cool though... Yeah, that's asking too much.' I thought.

I had already awakened this power when I turned 5 but I didn't tell anything to my parents since I wanted to run some experiments and understand my ability a little bit better but I felt like I was more focused on gathering information. Well, I would have enough time to train more when my body grew up a little more, or so I thought.

"It's a particular gift, but I am still not sure what kind of power it is… I think I need more time to train." I answered my father's question and even though I had some ideas about my ability, I decided to not say anything that my father would exaggerate as I knew he would boast about this the next day.

"A-a particular gift? I expect nothing less from you, my son. This is huge and the world will go into an uproar about this. This is something worth celebrating! Hahahaa!" My father talked loudly again and he even began to laugh proudly and heartedly. Then he stood out and lifted me in the air.

"Dear~ We are still dining. Did you not hear what I said? Also, please let Adam finish his meal peacefully." My mother talked with a sweet-sweet smile on her face but my father who was the Lord of Kepalta returned to his chair and gracefully continued to eat. Even I got goosebumps when my mother was like that.

After that meaningful exchange, we finished dining and we continued to talk a little bit more inside my room before sleeping.

At that time, the thought didn't even cross my mind and I didn't even know about the trouble that was just around the corner.